imagining how the church can reorient around mission

Lesslie Newbigin talks about how early churches were identified by their belonging to God and their location, and that Paul got on churches for identifying themselves by any other distinctive factor, such as by the church’s founder (1 Corinthians) (“On Being the Church for the World,” 1988). Instead, churches were identified with names such as “the church in Philippi” or “the church in Laodicea” instead of being identified by their founders, such as “the church of Paul” or “the church started by Apollos.” The result of this was a unity among the churches: there was one church, the church of Christ, which was just located in different places.

Let’s say you love soccer.  It’s your thing.  You can’t get enough of it.  Some people like the kind games when you’re sure to win, but you think an comfortable game is boring.  Others like when teams are evenly matched so that each team has to work hard and you’re never sure who’s going to win, but you know of an even better kind of game…  that perfect game is that one you’re always waiting for.  It’s that one you never forget; the one you shouldn’t have won because you were by far the underdog.  It’s the one you gave all of yourself for and then some.  You ran harder than you thought your body could ever handle.  You took risks and took them boldly.  And you won what no one thought you could.

Most American churches have become easy and comfortable in hopes of attracting more people. Has this worked?  Being a Christian has become boring, too easy, and too comfortable. Like the kind of soccer game that seems as though it’s not even worth playing because it’s too easy.  Who would want to join this kind of game?  We need churches that remind us of the game we’re supposed to be playing, of the calling Christ has for us, the courage we need to muster and risks we must take.  Give it your all! read more

               The missional church sounds great. This church will take the initiative and go and reach all peoples as commanded by God. The video by Michael Frost even called Christians to make sure they
were reaching the model car racers. When I heard that, I got excited. I was pumped that somebody was telling Christians to reach out to even the smaller groups to whom they feel called to proclaim Jesus. I was ready to get a specific calling from God for a specific people group to whom I could begin to minister. Now I know that this may seem like a romanticized response but this is where my heart is at anyways. I think the most important calling for Christians is to go to all people and proclaim the word. And here was Michael Frost saying that even model car racers are a people group that needs to hear the word. Then I could surely find a people group right now to whom I could start proclaiming.

                My next response was one of nervousness and fear. This happened because I started to think about all the different groups that would need to be reached if the model car racers count as their own group. Right now there are thousands of people groups. But breaking both the reached and unreached peoples down into much smaller, specific sub-groups, I thought there must still be millions of groups that need to be reached. It would be nearly impossible to reach this many people. Many smaller groups would be left out or left until later while the larger groups were reached. This means that there would still be many groups that would not have the joy of being children of God. It didn’t seem to solve anything. read more

seem to live in a world of “post-” everything.  The term “post-modernism” isn’t new for anyone in our twenty-first century, American culture (though that doesn’t necessitate our full understanding of it).  And though the idea of “post-Christendom” may well be new for many people, it doesn’t negate the concept as a reality.  Apparently the majority of us Christians simply need to either catch up on the times or forego our state of denial.  The problem with the term “post”, however, is that it only tells us of the state that we’re leaving.  It says nothing about what we’re moving into.  Soon I’ll be living in another “post”:  post-college.  Graduation day looms on the horizon, and I’m both eagerly anticipating and inwardly dreading it.  It represents freedom, but also the “unknown”.  It makes me envy those who have a plan.  But as far as I can tell, my situation and the church’s are much alike.  What we’ve known and done up until this point has seemed to work for us, but won’t anymore.  We’re both in that state of liminality, or flux, where there’s a lot of fear, but so much potential.  I was encouraged and challenged by Alan Hirsch when he talked about how the decisions we make now, as Christians, have the power to determine the course of the 21^st century for the church and society.  It’s daunting, but empowering.  We have a history, but we’re not determined by it.  We have buildings, but we’re not contained within them.  We seem to by “dying” from a cultural standpoint, but we can be renewed by dying to ourselves and living in Christ, choosing to be missional and embracing His kingdom.  It takes the fear out of it.  They tell us what we’re moving from, but we get to choose where to go from here.

It is fair to say that our generation likes things to be quick, easy, and to the point. Just take a look around your household or room and tell me there isn’t one product that has made your life a heck of a lot easier. I will give you a hint – you are staring at one! What is it that entices us to live this way? I have come to the conclusion that we are a society that is drawn to comfort and success. To know that a person can do something fast, efficient, and successfully would put anyone in a great mood.

            This leads me to my topic of discussion: why is it that churches think they need to truncate or sugar coat the gospel? Think about it – If you were a non-Christian coming to church for the first time what part of the gospel would sound the most easy or appetizing to you? Maybe if you receive Christ, things will go better for you. Or maybe if you receive Christ, all of your sins will be wiped away. All you have to do is confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”. That sounds quick, easy, and to the point. But wait…what about denying yourself and taking up your cross? No one said that this was a life long process; no one said that I would face persecution. It doesn’t sound too appetizing now does it? It is no wonder why so many churches today truncate the gospel. It gets people into the church, and it gets people saved! How can we communicate the gospel in a way that gets people saved, but at the same time get them to grow as true disciples?

I do not know how to blog. This blog is not one of intellectual prowess, I find it perplexing that you should take the time to read it, but here I am, honest and open with my struggles, knowing that through wrestling with these issues, God will transform my heart.  I am consistently finding myself in desperation.  The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Yahweh is in control, yet I am subject to a nearly continuous feeling of urgency.  I want God. Now.  We live between Jesus’ two comings and have been commissioned to be lights to His world, dull as we may shine. How do I, a 20 year old child with close to no knowledge of my Creator and his ways, not only accept this mission, but enter into it with faith?  Is the answer found in words?  And furthermore, who is able to articulate this answer? Search your soul and answer me this, how do we, as servants of the Most High, bear witness to the world of the reality of the Kingdom and the good news therein?  I feel wholly inept, but in my immense feeling of inadequacy, I find a crucial dependence upon the Lord. You and I are called to respond to His word, and I find myself stymied. If my soul had a face, surely the expression would be one of wide eyed, restless confusion.  I long to venture further into this journey set before me, but am overcome by a feeling that I will only blunder about, hoping that I may somehow bump into God.  To depart from our threshold of comfort devoid of God would be foolish, yet it is necessary to find the balance between knowing God will come through for us, and operating under a false justification that we are acting in the will of God, for his Kingdom.